In 1898, Warren A. Bechtel traveled from Peabody, Kansas to the Oklahoma Territory with a mule team to find construction work grading railroads. Since then, Bechtel has worked on mega projects throughout North America and the world, helping customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world's infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place. To learn more about Bechtel's history, click here.
Economic growth and major industrial projects in Canada
Since 1942, Bechtel Canada Co. and Bechtel Québec Ltée have been instrumental in the development of major industrial projects and the economic growth of Canada.
Bechtel’s presence in Canada began with the construction of the Canol Pipeline in the remote North to provide a secure supply of oil for the war effort. The 2,290-kilometer pipeline would begin 120 km below the Arctic Circle and cross portions of Alaska, the Yukon and other unmapped portions of the Northwest. From that moment on, Bechtel has been a key player in the development of Canada.
With projects such as the TransCanada Pipeline, Churchill Falls and James Bay hydroelectric projects, numerous aluminium smelters, Athabasca Oil Sands development, the Polaris Project and many more, Bechtel has completed more than 800 projects or studies.
Featured projects
Calgary-based Bantrel Co.
Bantrel Co. is a Canadian engineering, procurement, and construction company owned by Bechtel and McCaig Investments. Since its inception in 1983, Bantrel has delivered end-to-end solutions for some of Canada’s most challenging and complex energy projects - safely, on time and to the highest degree of quality. In addition to its core business in the oil, gas & chemicals industries, Bantrel also provides EPC services to clients in the power and mining & metals industries across Canada.
Roots of Canada’s nuclear program
Bechtel helped in the formation of Canada’s nuclear program by constructing the Nuclear Power Demonstration Reactor from 1958-1962 in northern Ontario for Canadian General Electric (now GE Canada), in partnership with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and Ontario Hydro (now Ontario Power Generation). The Nuclear Power Demonstration Reactor consisted of a single 22 MWe pressurized heavy water reactor unit located in Rolphton, Ontario, not far from AECL's Chalk River Laboratories.
